Student "edition" found at {csi dot journalspace dot com}.

Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

There was one student who was not able to make it to the general science requirement mechanics lab class practical exam last week. He’s one of the slacker seniors.

He showed up yesterday telling me that he missed the exam. I don’t know what he was expecting me to say, but I did ask him for a medical certificate.

And since I don’t know if I can ask the technicians to set up all the experiments again for just one person, it’s either I just make him draw one of the experiments then describe it on the whiteboard (which means we can have his exam in the conference area of the faculty room) or I ask him to borrow the equipment of the experiment he picked – after he identifies it correctly that is.

The first option is what I’m leaning towards, since it does not give him an unfair advantage over the others who did have the equipment for their practical exam.

He also has the added difficulty of having to remember all the materials used and not rely on what’s in front of him for identification or visual cues as to the procedure.

In the lecture class, Ephraim didn’t take the fourth exam, despite having given a booklet beforehand.

It may be that he is ill, but that just gives me the pleasure of giving him a more difficult makeup exam.

Seeing his pre-final grade though even without the fourth exam, he still needs around ninety percent in the finals to get a passing grade – in the lecture.

Speaking of the pre-final grade and the score needed in the finals to be able to pass, there are four students who have a needed percentage of more than one hundred percent.

This is the first time that this has happened to me, and can’t be remedied by adjusting the percentages so that the average of the four exams is eighty percent of the grade and the finals only five percent, which I will not allow anyway.

My conclusion: they can still take the exam since I give bonus points anyway, so they can get a score of a hundred and twenty over a hundred. None of them needs more than that to get a passing grade anyway, so it’s feasible.

Session 1577 may think there’s an advantage in asking classmates about the questions in an exam that was missed due to absence – as if the same questions will be asked. Class dismissed.